


Please Tell Karen...

by AuntieEm30



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen, and heavy blaspheming, dissecting film with psychology, if that's a deal breaker, rating is solely for Tony's potty mouth, scene add-on plus introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 09:43:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14210382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuntieEm30/pseuds/AuntieEm30
Summary: A tiny bit is added to the end of the ferry scene, to help SOMEONE *cough* realize they've got some major holes to plug in this whole mentoring thing.  Because I wanted a more emotionally satisfying final scene between them.





	Please Tell Karen...

Peter, not quite seeming to yet really process the heinous clothes he was now wearing, handed over the folded suit.

“Can you tell Karen I said goodbye?” he murmured quietly. Tony tilted his head.

“Who’s Karen?” Finally, after what had seemed like ages, the kid met his eyes again.

“The A.I.,” he said with a bit more focus, but somehow also flatter. Then he seemed to lose his nerve, and his gaze fell back to his feet.

“I mean, if she doesn’t just get deleted. It’s your tech, I don’t know what you do with it after…” Tony couldn’t quite keep from pulling back at that. Why would the kid say that?

“I don’t delete my A.I.s, kid.” He nodded, somehow looking even more miserable.

“That’s good for them,” he whispered thickly, stepping around Tony to leave.

Tony was absolutely certain that those words meant something, something hidden, like buried computer code. He just couldn’t isolate it to figure it out. He knew in his gut that it was important - possibly massively so. He didn’t know how.

All he knew, was that it left him feeling suddenly more chilled than he’d felt since he got back from Siberia, with a deep sense of unease inside. But the kid would learn from this, that’s what mattered.

***********

As much as it had thrown him, and maybe disappointed him a little, he couldn’t help but admire the decision Peter was making, choosing not to join the Avengers, at least for the time being. Tony knew almost immediately as soon as he said it, he realized that the kid had thought this through more than he did - hell, the squirt was still in school. And had Tony even thought about whether May would be alright with any of this, even a sanitized version? That would be a nope. Jeez, he sucked at this.

But he couldn’t help but notice something odd. As much as Peter clearly believed that he was making the right call, in a way he also seemed to be struggling to hold himself together. Was turning down the Avengers really so nerve-wracking? (probably).

But then Peter held his head up, offering a slightly trembling hand. “I guess this means so long, Mr. Stark. It’s been an honor.”

Tony stared. What?

Why was he… saying goodbye? Like they would never see each other again?

And then, like a shit-ton of bricks, it hit him - with a nauseating follow-up wave.

Peter thought they’d never see each other again, because Tony had never given him a reason to think they would.

He’d only ever contacted the kid on Spider-Man matters… which were tied directly into his supervision, more specifically his suit, which was all that alerted him when something was up (besides the evening news). The suit, while proven to not be what defined Peter as a hero - thank god - was the only thing truly connecting them. Before the suit told him there was an emergency, he’d never contacted the kid. After he took the suit away, he never contacted him.

And he hadn’t given the suit back - not yet. He’d told Peter he never would.

Jesus-fucking-Christ.

No wonder. No goddamn wonder.

Suddenly the comment back after the ferry about Karen and his A.I.s getting deleted (after they stopped being useful, presumably) made all the fucking sense in the world.

Peter thought that once the Stark material investment in his role as Spider-Man was withdrawn, when he was too much of a liability to have it, that he would be “deleted” from Tony’s life.

And Tony had never thought to refute that assumption that with his actions.

The kid had learned something, alright. Tony just hadn't realized all the lessons he was giving, and who knew how long it would take to unlearn them?

Because that was something Peter had to unlearn. He didn't deserve the feel this horribly, to think that he is disposable.

Shit-on-toast. What was that about not wanting to be like Howard? For all his parenting weaknesses, Tony was pretty sure even his old man had never unintentionally fucked-up this hardcore. If he were capable of roundhouse kicking himself in the face, he would.

Shut up, he told himself forcefully. This wasn’t about his guilt over being a spectacularly shitty mentor. This was about Peter and the message he’d gotten from Tony, albeit accidentally. And it was his job to fix it.

He fixed things, or at least improved upon them.

He was determined to fix this.

**Author's Note:**

> This tiny little thing came out of overdrawn pondering about theme / relationship framing vs supporting material. The movie clearly wants us to see a father/son or mentor/mentee relationship between these two, but the actual scenes between them and their contexts aren't nearly enough to actually hold that up. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to buy into for all the lovely fics, but I just don't see enough evidence of it being there or strong enough in the film. That's what we're here for, amiright?


End file.
